Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....4154n&link_type=abstract
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #4154
Physics
Scientific paper
Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager spacecraft (V1, V2) are exiting the heliosphere and each one is now well beyond the orbits of the planets. Careful studies have been made of the observed heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) and solar wind plasma over a full solar solar cycle through 2001. At that time, V1 was at a radial distance of 87 AU and heliographic latitude +35^o and V2 was at 69 AU and -26^o. These data have demonstrated that Parker's model of solar wind plasma flow and spatial structure of the solar originating field well describes these observations when due account of the temporal variations of the source field are taken into account by use of near-Earth observations at 1 AU. There has been continued study of the sector structure of the HMF delineating outward (outward) and inward (negative) directed fields. The Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS) has thus been mapped to these distances and latitudes and its configuration shows agreement with predictions of the extrapolated solar surface magnetic field structure. Correlative studies with simultaneous cosmic ray observations have been conducted. All these data have helped delineate the manner in which solar originating disturbances such as shocks and Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) evolve at great heliospheric distances. The solar wind speed as observed by V2 has been showing a slow but steady decrease down to an average of ˜390 km/sec at 65 AU. Sufficient energy is transferred from the pickup ions to the solar wind protons to produce a temperature increase outside ˜30 AU. The structure of the magnetic field has been identified as becoming multi-fractal beginning at ˜40 AU. The field at V1 is primarily azimuthal and in 2000--2001 was averaging ˜0.05 nT at 87 AU. This paper summarizes the magnetic field and solar plasma observations in the outer heliosphere.
Burlaga Leonard Francis
Ness Norman F.
Richardson John D.
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